Contest Status

Contest Disciplines

The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards (WPGA) opens a Juried competition for professional and non professional photographers worldwide: The Robert Cornelius Portrait Award.

WPGA invites photographers working in all mediums, styles and schools of thought. Traditional, contemporary, avant-garde, creative and experimental works that include old and new processes, mixed techniques, and challenging personal, emotional or political statements are welcome to The Robert Cornelius Award.

The winning images will be featured in The Photo Review, and published in the 2011 Robert Cornelius Portrait Award Calendar. The Robert Cornelius Portrait Award will consist in a cash prize of US $1000, and the winners of each category will receive a cash prize of US $300.

Objective

The theme is Portrait in its broader sense, with several related categories the contestants will be able to submit their images.

The photographers (professional and non professional) may submit their images to The Robert Cornelius Portrait Award in the following eight categories:

Portrait (the capture of the likeness of a person or a small group of people, in which the face and its expression is predominant)

People (snap shots and street photography where people are predominant in the scene – quoting Cartier Bresson: the “decisive moment”)

Figure and Nude (composed image of a person in a still position; an art form, where the photography of a nude or the human figure is a stylized depiction of body with the line and form of the human figure as the primary objective; it is a photograph that studies the human body rather than the person; as opposed to a portrait may not show a face at all)

Documentary, Editorial and Current Affairs (this category refers to any type of photojournalism, but it also may be an amateur, artistic or project pursuit, attempting to produce truthful, objective –and even candid photography- of a particular subject where people is the focus of the scene. Through these images the viewer learns truth information about cultural, political and environmental situations)

Alternative processes (In this case the term alternative process refers to any non-silver based photographic printing process. Alternative processes are often called historical, or non-silver processes, such as gum bichromate, print-out paper, platinum, palladium, cyanotype, collotype, carbo and albumen. All kind of alternative processes and mixed techniques are accepted in this category provided a portrait, a figure of a group of person is the main subject.

Digital Manipulation (By Digital Manipulation we understand a photo manipulation where image editing is done to create an illusion or deception (in contract to mere enhancement or correction) through digital means. The manipulation of the image is often much more explicit than subtle alterations to color balance or contrast. Image editing software can be used to apply different effects and warp the image until the desired result is achieved. The resulting image may have little or no resemblance to the photo (or photos in the case of compositing) from which is originated. Only manipulated images where the human is the focus will be accepted in this category)

Performing Arts (Images of portraits, people and figure participating or accomplishing a performing art such as dance, music, drama)

Self Portrait (When the photographer creates a portrait of him- or herself; it could be alone or with other people if the composition configures a desired environment)

Prizes

The Robert Cornelius Portrait Award will be given to the best of show photographer. The Juror will take into account not only an individual image but also the body of work submitted in one or several categories. First prize and Honorable mentions will be awarded in each category.

The Best of Show photographer will receive a cash prize of US $1000. The winners in each category will receive a cash prize of US $300.

In every category Honorable mentions will be awarded at discretion of the Juror.

Selected awarded images will be featured in The Photo Review.

All awardees’ images will be posted in WonderPick, the online gallery of WPGA, where their works could be sold in large additions. Awardees’ works who accept to sell their works in WonderPick in large editions (optional), at affordable prices, will receive a 60% commission. Sale of the images in large editions is optional by the awardees.

50 selected images will be part of an itinerant exhibition during 2011 starting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and then in Europe and US. The exposed works will be sold –in limited editions of 3- at the exhibition: artists will receive 40% commission; another 40% will be donated to Save the Children, and the remaining 20% will be used for exhibition organizational and promotional costs.

Selected images will be published in the 2011 Robert Cornelius Portrait Award Calendar.

Rules

WPGA invites photographers working in all mediums, styles and schools of thought.

All photographers, professional, amateurs and students, from every country in the world are eligible to participate. Amateurs and professions are not differentiated in the selection and awards process.

Any image can be submitted to one or more categories.

There is no limit in the quantity of images to be submitted and in the date the images were taken.

Jurors’ selection will take place during the month of May, and the final announcement will be on 8 June 2010.

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